From Bill Ladson:
Left-hander Nestor Cortes has always called Yankee Stadium home — and for good reason. Entering Saturday’s action against the Rays, Cortes was 13-5 with a 2.55 ERA in 39 career starts there, and hitters were 159-for-808 (.197) against him. The Rays ignored those numbers and hit Cortes hard as the Yankees lost, 9-1.
Cortes held Tampa Bay scoreless in the first two innings before walks in the next two innings proved costly. In the third, Alex Jackson — an .082 hitter entering the game — led off with a walk. After Amed Rosario singled to put runners on first and second, Isaac Paredes hit into a double play, and it looked as if Cortes was going to get out of the inning. But he then allowed a double to Curtis Mead, scoring Jackson.
The following inning, the Rays had a runner on first with two outs when Cortes walked Taylor Walls — a .158 hitter entering the game — and then allowed a three-run homer to Jackson to make it a 4-0 game.
Alex Jackson is famously one of the worst hitters in the entire game. He only plays because he’s apparently a really good defensive catcher (apparently so good that Ben Rortvedt is somehow not even really the starting catcher for the Rays. It’s very much a platoon). And Nestor gave up a three-run home run to him.
That says it all right there.
On top of that, the Yankees were groundball machines in this pathetic performance, with Alex Verdugo continuing to swing early, and swing terribly, and DJ LeMahieu is now at the point in his decline where he is pressing because he is so frustrated at how much he sucks, so now one of the best things about him, his batting eye, is failing him, as well, as he struck out in an insanely bad at-bat where he swung at Ball Four, like, five times or some crazy shit like that (fouling off four of them before striking out on the last one). A ten-pitch at-bat where Bradley through him, like, a single pitch in the actual strike zone. Crazy bullshit.
The featured image is Nestor AND Jackson both being shocked that Jackson just hit a ball that looked like it was heading over the fence.
If they play 500 the rest of the way they’ll win 90 games and probably make the playoffs (and lose to Houston in Round 1.)
In 2016 the yanks released Arod. DJLM is much worse. Why is he still playing every day? And why did they bring up Rivas just to sit him and send him back? The management of this team is too stupid to root for.
Service time is to be preserved, so as to minimize any actual major league performance we get before a player gets hurt.
Options are meant to be burned – also without getting any major league performance out of the player.
It’s all very consistent.
He’s signed until 2026 and the Yankees have nothing else. Waldo hits a little better, especially against RHPs, but is worse defensively.
Waldo gets the start today, everything else is the same.
At least Cash upgraded LF bigly
RAB 2023 NYY LF: .220/.299/.368
2024 Verdugo: .231/.287/.371
His defense has taken a step back too (went from +8 DRS in April to +4 now). The Yankees need a new left fielder at the deadline (again).
“We’ve got to find out and keep running him (DJ) out there. He’s earned that and with where we are right now roster-wise, we’ve got to give him that opportunity to lock in. And if we can do that, then we know we’ve got a really good hitter on our hands… He’s gonna continue to get opportunities here.”
Pinstripe Alley: Among hitters with at least 140 plate appearances, LeMahieu’s .472 OPS ranks fifth worst while his .149 wOBA against pitches over the heart of the plate places him dead last by a huge margin.
Even if you believed that he wasn’t suffering from an age related decline, he’s been injured for significant periods of the last 3 years, which could also be a reason for his terrible play.
It’s not impossible that DJLM could rebound, but it seems WAY more likely that he’s done, be it age, injury, or some combination. What’s the point in pretending that the Yankees owe him playing time?
Maybe they (Hal) don’t want to pay someone else to not play like Arod, Donaldson, Elsbury and Hixie. If this were his last year it might be different.
“Sunk cost” comes to mind. So does cashmans arrogance having to admit he blew it.
Why an owner allows his employee to blow tens of millions again and again is shocking.